Tag Archives: bagels

Stoneground buckwheat flour and raw sunflower seeds turns my recipe for furikake bagels into another great breakfast treat that even bees will love. My efforts to snap a decent shot was interrupted by this rather insistent bee. Maybe it was attracted to all that yellow.

Combine all of the dry ingredients in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Add the oil and water; mix with a wooden spoon until all comes together. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic; about 10 minutes. Lightly oil the bowl that was used for mixing and place dough inside; cover with plastic wrap and a dish towel. Allow to rise for about 90 minutes in a warm place until 1½ times the size in bulk.

Just before the next step, bring 6 cups of water to a boil and stir in 1 tbsp honey or maple syrup. Maintain heat at a gentle simmer. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

After the initial rising period, punch down dough and divide into 6 equal portions. Roll each portion into a rope of 10 inches in length, tapering the ends slightly. Bring the tapered ends together and overlap by 2 inches. Roll or pinch to seal. Set aside on a lightly floured surface, cover with a clean kitchen towel, and allow to rest for 20 minutes.

Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper and a light sprinkling of yellow cornmeal. Pour about a cup of sunflower seeds into a shallow dish.

After their brief rest, place bagels bottom side up into the simmering water for about half a minute. Flip them over with a slotted spoon and cook for another 30 seconds. Remove and gently flip bagel into the dish of sunflower seeds. Carefully pick it up and place (seed side up) onto prepared baking sheet. Bake for 25 minutes until a light golden brown, rotating pan front to back midway through baking time. Cool for several minutes before slicing.

I had such high hopes of creating something extraordinarily delicious but all I got was a big blue mess. I added wild mountain blueberries and chopped almonds to basic bagel dough, and while the end result might look alright, the flavor just wasn’t satisfactory enough.

Kneading the frozen berries into the base dough was a bit of a disaster. At first I thought the berries would drop the temperature of the dough and drastically slow down the rising process, but in effect the worse part was the ensuing moisture when cold berries met warm dough. It was bleeding blue all over the place! Yet with a little patience and a light dusting of flour every so often, I whipped that marbled mass into good form and eventually got to shaping them into rings after the first rise. Cute and fun but not worth the effort.

On the way to Heidiland last week, we made a quick stop in Madesimo and bought mountain blueberries at Moiola Market. These were 22€/kilo — not so hard on the pocket when purchased in small containers.

Usually when caper-meets-sandwich it is either on top of it or part of the filling. You’ll rarely, if ever, find it inside the bread part itself. Well here’s something different: chopped capers go into the bagel dough, dried tomatoes go into the cream cheese, and the eggplant pattie is baked instead of fried, making it less heavy and lighter in calories.

The capers that I used were the salted ones so they do need to be rinsed and squeezed dry before chopping them for the bagel dough. Instead of spelling out a lengthy recipe, I’m going to suggest that you take your favorite plain bagel recipe whether it be New York, Chicago or Montreal style, and for every 1½ cups flour, add 1 tablespoon of prepped capers. Making the dried tomato cream cheese is easy: finely chop dried toms and mix into cream cheese; season with ground black pepper. The eggplant patties (sliced just under 1/2-inch thick) need to be dipped in seasoned flour, beaten egg, and breadcrumb coating before baking at about 400°F until cooked through.

I ate one fresh out of the oven with just the eggplant pattie and tomato shmear, but I suggest thinly sliced sweet onions and shredded iceberg lettuce for added crunch and flavor.